There have been many cases of people impersonating doctors or surgeons for all kinds of reasons. These are some of the most interesting throughout recent history.

1. Kristina Ross

Fake profession: Plastic Surgeon

Kristina Ross frequented bars and pubs, claiming to be a plastic surgeon. She’d approach unsuspecting women, sweet-talk them and get them to know about her “private practice.” Under the guise of a plastic surgeon, she would conduct “breast examinations” on these women, and have them contact her number.

Her years of fake activities was brought to a halt when two recipients of her “free breast examinations” contacted the number Ross gave. The number belonged to a real plastic surgery clinic, but had no surgeon that went by the name of Kristina Ross. Their suspicions of the phony surgeon grew, so they called the police.

The authorities launched an investigated, and arrested Ross sometime later. But that’s not the last part of the story; upon arrest, it was discovered that she was actually a transgender man who changed his sex.

2. Francisco Rendon

Rendon was able to practice his own twisted brand of dentistry for about 16 months before the police finally caught on.

His dental clinic was situated between two automobile workshops. His patients grew wary of his dental credentials as they had to sit in a leather office seat instead of a reclining chair.

Hygiene was not maintained well; Rendon made his patients spit into a trash can rather than a proper sink. He used unlicensed tools, including a tool which purpose was to polish cars on his patients.

When the authorities came to his “office” to arrest him for practicing without a license, he still had many patients in the waiting room.

3. Keith Allen Barton

Fake profession: Doctor

This lying physician claimed that he could cure serious diseases like HIV and cancer. He claimed he could “stop the diseases before they spread” and “nip it off from the bud.” He spread lies about the pharmaceutical industry, propagating the myth that corporations were hiding the real cure to those diseases.

In reality, what he did was charge his patients exorbitant fees for his homemade cures. Most of his remedies were made of cheap ingredients and did nothing to improve patients’ conditions. Sometimes he even made it worse.

He shares the same name as a registered doctor in California, and used this fact to swerve past the authorities. He was finally arrested under charges of identity theft and grand theft.

4. William Hamman

Fake profession: Cardiologist and Medical Speaker

Everybody liked him; he flew commercial planes for a living, and was also a cardiologist with 15 years of experience at the side. He frequently published papers in academic journals. He went around delivering lectures at universities and Cardiology seminars.

One day he submitted an early draft to a university committee that oversaw publication for their medical journal. One staff member spotted a glaring flaw in the otherwise impeccable paper; he had no M.D. (medical doctor) qualification.

What makes Hamman so interesting is that his academic achievements as a fake cardiologist were particularly impressive. His focus was on team-based efforts and how to get cardiology teams to work better together to improve outcomes. It had real academic weight to it.

5. William Bailey

Fake profession: Doctor

Bailey was an eccentric man. Being born in the late 1800s, when radioactivity was still a poorly understood science, he was obsessed in marketing the health benefits of consuming radioactive substances for the masses.

In 1918, he released Radithor; a tonic that he claimed could cure diseases and restore health by stimulating the endocrine glands. Of course, there was no scientific basis to this. Radithor was made by adding radium crystals into water. It gave off an emission of 1 microcurie per mole of Ra.

Despite not being proven to be effective, the public lapped up Bailey’s bogus claims of the healing properties of Radithor. Eben Byers, a young Pennsylvanian competitive golf player, was urged to take the irradiated substance after a consultation with his doctor. He was suffering from pains in his side; so he bought and drank Radithor on a daily basis.

Byers died in 1932. He had holes in his skull due to radiation poisoning; his jaw even fell off as it degenerated. He had to be buried in a lead coffin to contain the radioactivity from his body.

Bailey died after the Second World War, after having suffered from multiple cancers and poisoning.

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